Round 3 of the new season and Raiders were in Kent to play Canterbury. Always a difficult fixture made more so this season as Raiders were yet to pick up their first win.
Raiders made three changes to the squad that played against Havant the previous week. Sam Myles and Tom Meyer were making their national league debuts and Frank Taggart made his first appearance of the new campaign. With the unavailability list still in double figures this looked a good selection with which to seek a win on the road against formidable opponents.
The visitors kicked off playing down the slope on a hot, sunny afternoon. The home side made a bright start, capitalising on an error by Raiders to open the scoring with a converted try, 7-0. Louis Ellis was injured in the build up play and had to leave the field.
Almost immediately Jack Forrest made a telling break to put the visitors deep in Canterbury territory and when the referee penalised the defending team, Charlie Spencer slotted the kick to close the gap to 7-3. Some ineffective tackling by the visitors allowed the home side to make ground but the defence recovered, and no score ensued.
Canterbury were guilty of giving away several penalties in this opening period and after twelve minutes Charlie Spencer kicked another three pointer to bring the lead down to one point, 7-6. Ollie Streeter then received a yellow card for a technical offence in the sixteenth minute. The home side kicked to touch deep in Raiders’ twenty-two and from the lineout scored a catch and drive try which was again converted, 14-6.
The visitors continued to play deep in Canterbury territory and when another penalty was awarded to them, they took a shot at the posts. This one missed but straight away the home side were penalised again and from a closer position Charlie Spencer added another three points to their tally, 14-9.
With twenty minutes played Raiders were competing well in all areas of the pitch and were having quite a lot of territorial advantage. During this period of the game they had more than one good chance to cross the Canterbury try line but basic errors let them down at these important moments.
When Kieran Tomlinson was yellow carded for a technical offence, Canterbury again capitalised from the ensuing lineout with another try from close range. This was also converted, and they stretched their lead to 21-9. Two minutes later one of the Canterbury props was yellow carded.
With thirty minutes of the half played Raiders had another chance to close the gap with a catch and drive of their own. Unfortunately, Canterbury defended well, and the play ended with a scrum to the home side. Another chance came Raiders’ way in the thirty-seventh minute. From a lineout deep in the Canterbury twenty-two the visitors set up a driving maul which seemed to be going over the try line for a touchdown, until the referee deemed the Raiders had caused an obstruction offence in the maul.
The visitors still had the home side pinned in their own twenty-two area, but an excellent piece of play from the Canterbury scrum half saw him dart away from a scrum and go the length of the field to end the half with a converted try.
Half time score: Canterbury 28 Worthing Raiders 9
The second half started very promisingly for Raiders as they scored a converted try after only two minutes. Jack Forrest made a typical, defence splitting break of some fifty metres before releasing Charlie Spencer who outran the cover defence to touchdown under the posts and then kick the conversion to bring the score to 28-16.
Raiders as always were using their bench to maintain the tempo of their play. It wasn’t until the sixteenth minute of the half that any further scores occurred. Unfortunately, for Raiders it was the home side that earned another converted try to stretch the lead to 35-16.
With twenty minutes played it was the visitors turn to score. The tempo of their play had moved up a gear in their effort to play ‘catch up’. Two penalties in quick succession saw Sam Myles take a quick tap at the first, causing a second to be conceded. This one was kicked to touch ten metres from the Canterbury try line and from the lineout Jimmy Staples burst away from the driving maul to touchdown. Charlie Spencer hitting the upright with the conversion.
At 35-21 the visitors had twenty minutes left to either turn the game around or at least gain one or possibly two bonus points. Both sides were drawn into a rather frenetic style of play. Many errors accrued on both sides as they tried to keep the ball alive at all costs. Raiders continued to get into good attacking positions, but they lacked patience, and chances were rather thrown away.
As the visitors put everything into attack, the home side were able to take advantage of errors, and they scored two more converted tries to lead 49-21 with ten minutes to play. Raiders almost scored on a couple more occasions, notably when skipper Jack Forrest made another break for the line only to have the ball dislodged by last ditch tackles.
The visitors kept the pressure on right up to the end but sadly they couldn’t claw anymore points back on their opposition.
Full time score: Canterbury 49 Worthing Raiders 21
Canterbury played well and deserved to win but the result could have been a lot different if Raiders had made less errors in attacking situations and not given away penalties that allowed the hosts to maintain pressure deep in Raiders’ territory. Some good individual performances, not least by skipper Jack Forrest, but also good teamwork but for far too short periods.
Referee: Jack Sutton
Scorers:
Team:
1. Fraser Bruce 2. Elliott Luke 3. Ollie Streeter 4. Jack Lake 5. Dan Macadams 6. Ollie Crow 7. Will Gearing-Grief 8. Ray Jardine 9. Jake Rutherford 10. Louis Ellis 11. Charlie Spencer 12. Max Boxall 13. Jack Forrest (Captain) 14. Bruno Perry 15. Tom Meyer
Bench:
16. Jimmy Staples 17. Balazs Magda 18. Frank Taggart 19. Sam Myles 20. Kieran Tomlinson
